Michael Jackson gets more bizarre after death

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Bizarre in life, Michael Jackson’s complex personal affairs are taking even stranger twists in death, with sketchy reports on Tuesday of plans for an elaborate public memorial and questions over the parentage of his children.

After five days of television replays of Jackson’s hit songs and glowing tributes to his musical genius, attention has turned to the murkier side of the “Thriller” singer.

Celebrity website TMZ.com, which broke the news of Jackson’s death, reported the entertainer was not the biological father of his three children and that his ex-wife, Debye Rowe, was not the genetic mother of the eldest two.

A 2002 will signed by Jackson was reported to have been turned over to his family but its validity was unclear. The attorney said to have the will, John Branca, did not return calls for comment.

In that will, the King of Pop was said to have left the bulk of his multimillion-dollar estate to his three children and his mother Katherine but cut out his father, Joe, who Jackson had accused of beating him as a child.

Several media reports said Jackson’s body would be driven to his Neverland Valley Ranch near Santa Barbara in Central California on Thursday ahead of a public viewing this weekend.

One story in Britain’s Sun newspaper said Jackson’s body would first be driven through Los Angeles in a glass-sided horse-drawn carriage, complete with a matching glass coffin.

None of the reports could be verified with the many managers, lawyers and spokespeople who claimed to speak on behalf of Jackson or his family since his sudden death after cardiac arrest on June 25, at the age of 50.

Several California public safety officials said they had not yet heard from the Jackson family, although they confirmed they were meeting to discuss a possible service at Neverland.

Tom Barrack, chief executive of Colony Capital LLC, the private equity firm that co-owns Neverland, issued an open letter to the people of Santa Barbara County asking them to prepare for “a global drama of epic proportion.”

BURIED IN BAD MEMORIES

Yet the theme park-style ranch, a four-hour drive northwest of Los Angeles, was the site of the infamous sleepovers Jackson held with young boys that led to unproven charges of child molestation in 1993 and a 2005 trial. Now shuttered and emptied, Neverland was abandoned by Jackson after the trial.

Despite his charisma on stage, Jackson was largely reclusive off stage. He relied on an ever-changing series of aides to fend off curiosity about his two brief marriages and changing physical appearance — all of which led the British media to dub him “Wacko Jack” some 15 years ago.

“This is a story that’s going to last and develop and get bigger in the next year,” TMZ managing editor Harvey Levin said on Tuesday. “You’re going to see quite the show here.”

Among the extraordinary claims Tuesday, celebrity magazine Us Weekly said the biological father of Michael Jr, 12, and Paris, 11, was Jackson’s Beverly Hills dermatologist, Dr Arnold Klein, for whom Rowe once worked. The identity of the surrogate mother of Prince Michael II, 7, has never been known.

“He was even concerned people would kill him to somehow try to take control of the Beatles’ back catalog,” Oxman told the magazine, referring to Jackson’s lucrative joint venture.

The cause of Jackson’s death has not yet been determined. Results of toxicology tests are not expected for about 4-6 weeks but speculation is rife that Jackson’s death will be attributed to his prescription drug use.